{"id":40451,"date":"2016-08-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/atheist-finds-it-hard-to-shake-god\/"},"modified":"2016-08-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-08-01T00:00:00","slug":"atheist-finds-it-hard-to-shake-god","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/atheist-finds-it-hard-to-shake-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Atheist Finds it Hard to Shake God"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An article in the <em class=\"citation\">Washington Post<\/em> is titled &quot;I&#39;m an atheist. So why can&#39;t I shake God?&quot; and it suggests that it&#39;s &quot;hard to believe in nothing when your psyche is wired for faith.&quot; The author Elizabeth King tells how she abandoned her childhood Christian faith for atheism. &quot;Until my mid-teens, I was a &#39;born again&#39; Christian who loved God with all her heart. These days, though, I&#39;m an atheist with nothing to prove.<\/p>\n\n<p>&quot;The story of my departure from the church resembles those of many others who have abandoned the flock. When I was about 16, I started asking questions during services that my youth pastors couldn&#39;t or didn&#39;t want to answer: Why is it a sin to be gay? Why is it okay to spank children? Where does the Bible say we can&#39;t have premarital sex?&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>Still, in spite of her atheism, King states, &quot;somehow God has found a way to stick around in my mind.&quot; She thinks that &quot;God&#39;s lingering presence&quot; could be attributed to &quot;the inner-workings of the human mind&quot; against which the atheist battles hard. She claims, &quot;If I could &hellip; banish this figure from my psyche, I would.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>In the end, she has to admit, &quot;I have no choice but to accept that I&#39;m an atheist with a sense for God.&quot;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3402,3424,3450,3469,3675,3690,3713,3726,3758,3827,3902,3915,3933,4008,4089,4181,4329,4394,4699,4749,4752,4772,4798,4900,4992,5065,5202,5303],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-40451","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-agnosticism","tax_ctp_tags-apologetics","tax_ctp_tags-atheism","tax_ctp_tags-backsliding","tax_ctp_tags-consecration","tax_ctp_tags-conviction","tax_ctp_tags-creator","tax_ctp_tags-culture","tax_ctp_tags-denial","tax_ctp_tags-doubt","tax_ctp_tags-evidence-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-existence-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-faith","tax_ctp_tags-forgetfulness","tax_ctp_tags-grace-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-human-nature","tax_ctp_tags-knowing-god","tax_ctp_tags-lostness","tax_ctp_tags-presence-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-pursuing-sinners","tax_ctp_tags-questions","tax_ctp_tags-rebellion","tax_ctp_tags-religion","tax_ctp_tags-secularism","tax_ctp_tags-skepticism","tax_ctp_tags-spirituality","tax_ctp_tags-unbelief","tax_ctp_tags-worldview"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Atheist Finds it Hard to Shake God - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/atheist-finds-it-hard-to-shake-god\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Atheist Finds it Hard to Shake God - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An article in the Washington Post is titled &quot;I&#039;m an atheist. So why can&#039;t I shake God?&quot; and it suggests that it&#039;s &quot;hard to believe in nothing when your psyche is wired for faith.&quot; The author Elizabeth King tells how she abandoned her childhood Christian faith for atheism. &quot;Until my mid-teens, I was a &#039;born Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/atheist-finds-it-hard-to-shake-god\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/atheist-finds-it-hard-to-shake-god\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/atheist-finds-it-hard-to-shake-god\/\",\"name\":\"Atheist Finds it Hard to Shake God - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-08-01T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-08-01T00:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/atheist-finds-it-hard-to-shake-god\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/atheist-finds-it-hard-to-shake-god\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/atheist-finds-it-hard-to-shake-god\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Atheist Finds it Hard to Shake God\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Atheist Finds it Hard to Shake God - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/atheist-finds-it-hard-to-shake-god\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Atheist Finds it Hard to Shake God - CT Pastors","og_description":"An article in the Washington Post is titled &quot;I&#39;m an atheist. 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